New Spray Kit for Dry Manure Application Offers Retailers Extra Income Potential

If you have customers who apply poultry litter or other dry manures, chances are you don’t sell them much in the way of commercial fertilizer. But now you can further develop your relationship with these customers and realize an additional revenue stream that hasn’t existed before.

A joint collaboration between Chandler Equipment Company and SFP®, a Verdesian Life Sciences company, has led to the development of a spray unit mounted on Chandler spreaders to allow one-pass application of dry manures and More Than Manure® (MTM®) Nutrient Manager. The spray assembly can either be factory installed  or retrofitted to existing Chandler spreaders.

Based in Gainesville, Georgia, Chandler Equipment Company is a leading manufacturer of fertilizer and manure application equipment. SFP developed and manufactures More Than Manure, a nutrient manager that helps increase plant availability of phosphorus (P) and reduce nitrogen (N) losses from applied manure to the environment. MTM also reduces ammonia levels associated with manure in livestock confinement facilities and on manure-treated crop land. Verdesian Life Sciences, LLC, acquired SFP in early July, allowing the combined companies to expand their portfolio of plant health and nutritional technologies to stay ahead of the growing demand for products to increase plant health and ultimately improve yields.

According to Michael Sosebee, national sales manager for Chandler Equipment Company, use of MTM on chicken litter previously required an additional pass to spray the product on applied litter 24 to 48 hours after application. "No one wants to run their sprayers that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars through applied chicken litter for obvious reasons," Sosebee explains. "And farmers using chicken litter did not like making the separate application trip to apply MTM at a time when spray equipment is often tied up with other crop-related duties."

The new spray kit, developed jointly by Chandler and SFP and offered on both pull-type and truck-mounted spreaders, avoids these obstacles and saves farmers the $7-to-$10-per-acre application trip. In addition, farmers who purchase or retrofit their Chandler spreaders with the spray kit assembly are eligible for a 10-dollar-per-gallon credit on the purchase of More Than Manure – up to the actual invoice amount of the spray unit or a maximum of $8000.

SFP regional manager Mark Fuchs, who covers the heavy poultry-producing Mid-Atlantic region, notes that this new ability to apply MTM in conjunction with litter applications will be well received by no-till farmers because it will remove the need to incorporate the litter following application. "This will be a big benefit for no-tillers who apply chicken litter – not only in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states, but throughout the U.S. where poultry production is well established," Fuchs says.

Mike Moser, national equipment manager for SFP, says the boom-less nozzles create a spray swath of 30 feet, which will cover the applied litter in the first pass. The spray kit also can be used to apply other crop-protection products that are labeled for tank mixes with MTM. "Research and field trials with MTM-treated manure show an average corn yield increase of 9.5 bushels per acre," Moser says. "That yield increase, combined with reduction in ammonia levels due to reduced nitrogen losses, is getting the attention of poultry producers and farmers who use litter as a fertilizer source."

Moser adds that, in addition to reduction in ammonia levels, there are other environmental benefits to using MTM. Because more P and N are available for plant uptake, more of these nutrients get into the crop and less remain in the soil subject to off-site movement.

The spray kits for retrofitting and the spreaders with factory-installed spray nozzles are currently available nationwide through Chandler Equipment Company-authorized dealers.

Source: Yeldsigns